Shenanigans in Salt

This past Saturday we went to Salt for the day. A young guy named Bashir lives there and volunteers with SIT so he gave us a nice tour. The drive was only 30 minutes by bus and we started by going to a few museums that showcased the history of the city. It was amazing to see artifacts that are from 1000BC and even old. Afterwards we walked through the main street market. They had everything from shoes, cell phones, dead chickens, live chickens, clothes, spices...a good variety of things. We all felt very out of place being a big group of Americans. I think all of us students are trying our best not to be tourists and really take our travel experience to a deeper level. In the case of Salt, I think it would have been better to split up into smaller groups so that we didn't showcase our "American-ness" so much. The end of the market opens up into a large community area where a few groups of men were playing mancala. At first I was really excited because I know how to play mancala but unfortunately their version wasn't exactly the same. They were excited to try and explain the game which was fun but fruitless.
Lunch was at a small restaurant that I would never have noticed if I was traveling by myself. After lunch we went to Bashir's high school which is one of the oldest schools in Jordan. The school was completely empty so we had a chance to walk around and look into classrooms. There was an English class that had questions on the board like "How do teachers react to student's mobiles?" "Why do you think teacher's have this reaction?" I found it interesting that this was a topic for discussion in school because in the US cell phones in class are never acceptable and really discouraged. I got the impression that the sentiment in Jordan is a bit different.
Outside the school there were a bunch of kids playing soccer and some people from our group joined in. It took a little while for the game to start because boys from our group kept kicking the ball over the fence. Now over the fence doesn't mean it lands in someone's backyard. Over the fence means falling several feet, rolling down a hill, getting kicked around in the market and then maybe ending up in someone's backyard. So the process of getting the ball back was extensive and happened twice. Once everyone figured out not to kick the ball so hard the game started and the Americans lost- badly. After the game a boy named Mohammad who was about 13 came over and introduced himself. I reached to shake his hand and he wouldn't shake it. I know there is some religious reason for this that I'm not remembering right now but initially it caught me off guard. He was very enthusiast about having his picture taken but not shaking hands.
Bashir then told us we were going to have tea and then head back to Amman. We all thought that we would have tea in a café like we have done in the past so we were all a little surprised when the bus pulls over on the side of the highway we’re told to get out. Bashir then announces that we can see the West Bank in the distance, the sun is setting and pulls out a thermos of tea. So we sat on the side of the highway drinking tea and watching the sunset over Palestine.